1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an analog to digital converter (ADC), and more particularly, to a correlation circuit for an ADC.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As communication systems advance quickly, ADCs with broad bandwidth and high resolution are required. Time-interleaved ADCs, a.k.a. parallel ADCs, are thereby introduced. This kind of ADC utilizes M parallel ADCs having a sampling frequency fs and an n-bit resolution. Sample timings of these M ADCs are distributed uniformly within one period T=1/fs. In other words, assuming that the sample timings of the first ADC, ADC0, are (0, T, 2T, . . . ), the sample timings of the second ADC, ADC1, will be (T/M, T+T/M, 2T+T/M, . . . , and the sample timings of the (i+1)th ADC, ADCi, will be (iT/M, 1T+iT/M, 2T+iT/M, . . . ). As a result, the bandwidth of the original ADC is expanded to M multiple and the n-bit resolution is maintained.
Some errors may occur due to mismatch among ADCs. These potential errors include timing error, gain error, and offset error. Any one of combination of the three errors may degrade the efficiency of the time-interleaved ADC. The timing error affects the efficiency most. Structure of unique sample and hold (S/H) circuit for all ADCs is usually adopted to reduce the timing error. This S/H circuit must be having a very high speed sampling frequency and very accurate circuit.
There are several other methods to estimate the above-mentioned errors. One of them is to input a test sine wave to time-interleaved ADC, and to individually analyze the phase and the amplitude of the output signal of each ADC to obtain information about the timing error and gain error. However, the frequency of the test sine wave is constrained to (1+s) fs, where −0.5<s<0.5, and the phase and the amplitude of the output signal can only be estimated in the time domain. Another method is to estimate the timing error of a test sine wave in the frequency domain. However, a highly complicated calculation of DFT/IDFT is necessary in the digital domain. A background compensation method has also been introduced. Before being received by the S/H circuit, an input signal is added to an analog ramp function signal having a period ts=1/Mfs. If the average (DC component) of the input signal is zero, the information of timing error will hide in the DC component of each ADC output due to the ramp function. This method assumes that the average of the input signals is zero and no offset error exists between ADCs. Still another method is based on a signal statistics principle. If a timing error occurs, a mean square difference between two adjacent ADCs includes information about the timing error. Although this method is a background compensation method and no extra analog signals are required, complicated calculation in the digital domain cannot be avoided.